Customer Reviews

Caesar's Legions: The Roman Soldier 753 BC to 117 AD

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I just received a wonderful book on the Roman military. It is called "CAESAR'S LEGIONS: the Roman Soldier from 753 BC to 117 AD". There are loads of photographs and over a dozen color plates! This is written by Nicholas Sekunda, Simon Northwood, and Michael Simkins. There are 143 pages, 110 B&W photos, 37 line drawings, 4 maps and 24 color plates. The book is published by Osprey Books. Michael Simkins is a craftsman and historian who has many of his recreations of Roman armor on display in European museums and re-enactment groups. The book will be a great addition to the historian, reenactor and wargamer's library.

Real informations about the most famous and formidable war apparatus of antiquity, the Roman Legion - Republican and Imperial periods as well - are scanty indeed. We know that this military organisation stood almost invincible for a millennium or so and yet we still ignore the actual manner it performed effective tactical mechanisms as its typical and sharply different deployements and formations changes (and even weaponry variations) according to enemy forces, battle ground and environment. The book tries to make the best use of the scanty - and often contrasting - historical sources and archaelogical evidence to give us an appreciable portrait of this ancient juggernaut in the course of its multifarious war experiences.